It is an undeniable fact that road transport has a lot of socio-economic benefits: facilitation of trade, easy movement of people and goods, etc. Aside these, road networks create and stimulate positive synergy and enhance social cohesion and integration.
It is against this background that I doff my hat for His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama for his passion for infrastructure development in this country especially in the road sector, and I would like to take the opportunity to throw more light on the Fufulso-Sawla road, which was commissioned by him not too long ago.
The 145 kilometres road which was in a very deplorable state for many, many years was funded by the African Development Bank at a cost of 157 million dollars, and has brought a lot of relief to travelers along the western corridor of the Northern Region which includes communities such as Laribanga, Fufulso, Sawla, Damongo and others.
It also serves commuters to West Gonja, and links the Northern Region to the Upper West Region which is another huge assuagement to the the people living in those regions. Prior to its completion, the Fufulso-Sawla road was notorious for armed robbery operations because vehicles have to slow down on most parts of the road.
Hitherto, travelers frustratingly spent about four hours from the Fulfulso Junction to Damongo, but now the same distance is covered in less than an hour without any armed robbery attacks.
Additionally, the road is very strategic and leads tourists to important historic sites like the Mole Game Reserve, the Mystic Stone and the Ancient Mosque at Laribanga.
Digressing a bit, it is also heartwarming to know that works on the Kasoa Interchange has started, and an interchange at the Tema Roundabout would be started next year. These are projects that would in no doubt bring a lot of comfort to the good people of Ghana.
People borrow to pay fees of their children which is not bad, people borrow to build houses or invest which is also not bad because it will never go waste. Similarly, it is good for President Mahama to borrow to build infrastructure that will bring relief to the good people of Ghana.
The opposition has been doing some arithmetics to make a point that if Ghana’s debt is divided by its population, each citizen will have 3,600 cedis debt to pay. I don’t know how they came by their calculation, but the question I want to ask is that did they share Ghana’s debt before leaving office in 2009?
Even if their calculation is correct which I doubt, the Fufulso-Sawla road and other life-changing projects by President Mahama are a major coup for the people living in that area; and I believe they would be happy to accept a debt of GHC3,600 if it will give them comfort and save them from being killed by armed robbers or have their money and precious items taken away from them.